After a New York attorney general investigation ousted Gov. Andrew Cuomo as a serial harasser, the disgraced politician announced his resignation Tuesday. Now, it’s time to strip Cuomo of all his other accolades.
Most notably is Cuomo’s recently received Emmy award. Last year, the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced that it would award its International Emmy Founders Award to Cuomo for his daily coronavirus briefings. In other words, Cuomo received a highly sought-after award for showing up to work.
While Cuomo is a good enough actor — he fooled many watching at the time into thinking he was properly handling the unfolding pandemic — he’s entirely undeserving of an Emmy. Or any other award, for that matter.
This wouldn’t be the first time the Academy rescinded an award — in 2017, actor Kevin Spacey’s award was revoked over an alleged sexual assault. In 2018, alleged assaulter Bill Cosby’s name was removed from the Emmys website and the Academy’s Hall of Fame.
In 2015, Cuomo was honored as Earth Day New York’s Public Official of the Year. That same year, he received the Empowerment Justice Award at the National Urban League’s 59th Annual Equal Opportunity Dinner.
In 2016, he received the Patriarch Athenagoras Human Rights Award, a high-ranking humanitarian award, from New York’s Greek Archdiocese. In 2018, Cuomo was provided the Building Trades Employers Association’s first-ever “Master-Builder” award for building a bridge. In 2019, he received the Larry Kramer Activism Award from the NYC-based non-profit Gay Men’s Health Crisis.
Last October, Cuomo’s book “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” received a spot on the New York Times Best Seller List, an honor Cuomo can list on all his future books if the title is not stripped from him. Many books have been removed from the list for much less, such as authors allegedly buying their way onto the list.
Last December, he was awarded the 2020 Edward M. Kennedy Institute Award for Inspired Leadership. In his acceptance speech, Cuomo noted that leadership was about doing what’s right — even if it’s hard. In reality, under Cuomo’s leadership, thousands of nursing home residents died and nearly a dozen young women alleged they faced sexual advances while working for him.
Cuomo was even listed as a top-runner for TIME Magazine’s 2020 “Person of the Year,” and has won numerous other laurels throughout his career. Countless politicians, journalists, and actors have been canceled and punished for lesser crimes. Cuomo’s sickening actions should strip him of everything but grade school participation ribbons — but even that may be celebrating him too much.
